By Aaron Tan
Tuesday, February 07 2006 07:39 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/communications/0,39044192,39310307,00.htm

SINGAPORE--An Internet service provider (ISP) in Cambodia is counting on wireless broadband to deliver high-speed Internet access across the country.

Cambodia Data Communication (CDC) holds a license from the country's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and has started providing wireless broadband access to the capital city, Phnom Penh. The carrier intends to expand coverage to other Cambodian cities this year.

Wireless broadband typically covers a range of up to 30 miles, delivering Internet access speeds of up to 75 megabits per second. This is more than 20 times the speed of the fastest wired broadband available commercially.

Channda Sok, managing director of CDC, said in a statement that Cambodia's history of civil wars has prevented the deployment of an effective telecommunications infrastructure based on physical wires.

She added that CDC turned to wireless broadband because it needed a solution that would allow the country to take advantage of the latest advances in wireless and Internet Protocol (IP) technologies.

Cambodia has a population of 15 million, and according to the International Telecommunications Union, the country has a low Internet penetration rate of just 0.5 percent, or 41,000 Internet users, as of Sept. 2005.

Only a handful of ISPs currently provide Web access in the country, according to Greg Caltabiano, president and chief operating officer of Soma. CDC's infrastructure is based on Soma Networks' pre-WiMax fixed wireless systems.

With the new wireless broadband service, CDC is Cambodia's first ISP to offer tiered and bundled packages with high-speed Net access and various data applications targeting consumers and business users

Caltabiano told ZDNet Asia: "In Cambodia, whether you are a consumer or business user, you can go to the incumbent and wait a long time to get broadband. Or, you can go to an innovative service provider like CDC and get it very quickly."

He noted that many ISPs want to set up wireless broadband services very quickly to capitalize on the emerging technology. "You want to put in very few base stations, cover a large area and get subscribers before the incumbent reacts," he said. "Once you offer wireless broadband, you can offer other services on top of it to increase ARPU (average revenue per user)."

"This is the same model [that has been adopted] in many countries in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and even in the United States," he said.

Apart from data, Caltabiano said, voice is one service that could be offered on top of wireless broadband. But he noted that wireless broadband is still in its infancy and does not compete with cellular voice services.

"Operators that deploy wireless broadband in the beginning will do so in limited areas for services which don't require ubiquitous coverage," he said. "In the future, we'll see video applications, managed services and enterprise solutions like IP-PBX."

Over time, however, as wireless broadband networks encompass larger geographical areas, ISPs will extend their offerings to support portability and mobility, Caltabiano said. This would create a battle among different service providers for voice revenues, he added.